(On not needing a last second drive to win this game… ) That is a hard thing to do in the National Football League, to be able to win the way we did. Credit the crowd, they were into it the whole day. The defense did a tremendous job. The offensive line was tremendous today, against a very, very good Cardinal defense. They have a lot of great players on that side of the ball, and the offensive line was moving them around pretty good. Marshawn’s ability to escape and get into the end zone three times today; Robert Turbin’s night tonight was unbelievable. I’m so happy for him; he’s my roommate, so I feel very good for him. Then we got Leon Washington into the end zone too, so it was a spectacular night.

(On getting everybody in the game…) There were so many guys; special teams guys making plays, getting touchdowns, not just turnovers, but touchdowns on special teams. The defense; Anthony McCoy had a big, big night tonight. There were so many guys; go right down the list.

(On the 67 yard pass to McCoy…) We had three guys coming across the field. Anthony did a good job of getting open, and I threw the ball right over the corner’s head, and he just kept going. Sidney Rice made a great block downfield. If he stayed outside, he could have scored, possibly, but he made an unbelievable play. He’s really, really improving every week, every game. As I throw to him more and more, we’re really clicking, so he’s doing a great job, and I’m really proud of him.

Digital Access for only $0.99

(On the importance of winning a game like this…) It’s another chapter. You have so much respect for their football team, and defensively they’ve done a great job all year. To be able to win in that fashion, especially in the National Football League, it’s hard to do. Now we can go on to the next weekend; it’s another chapter, so we have to move on and play the Buffalo Bills, on the road, so that will be a great game.

(On whether this game validates the strength of this team…) I think we have a very, very strong team, in terms of offensively, defensively and special teams. The coaches do a tremendous job of getting us prepared throughout the week. We have a lot of energy, a lot of great players that can really fly around and make a lot of different plays. To be able to do that, it’s great to see that. But at the same time, you can’t get too high. That’s the fear that we all have; we can’t get too high, we have to stay focused on what we can do to control our destiny, and that’s to play one play at a time, like we did tonight.

(On what he learned from playing a team for the second time…) It was so much better, to be out there and to be able to see. My first game as a rookie was at Arizona, we lost that close game. We had so many chances to score there at the end. To lose that game. When I was watching the film this week, I thought, ‘man, I’ve improved a lot.’ Our football team has improved a lot. That’s the exciting part. You have to credit the coaches for that, you have to credit the players for our attention to detail throughout this whole entire process, and you have to respect that process. That’s what I’ve been saying all year; I knew that it was going to be a journey, and we still have a lot more to do, and our focus is to play one game at a time, and see if we can go one-and-oh every week.

(On how he has worked with Anthony McCoy…) We’ve worked a lot. In terms of throwing together, and working on our timing routes. He has so much speed, and so much ability. He’s like a receiver in terms of the way he runs. He had a great night tonight; his ability to catch the football is a plus for us. All the tight ends, really, to be honest with you. We’ve really worked at it, in terms of getting there early for practice, throughout practice, and at the end of practice. Just getting a couple of extra balls here and there, to help us come game day.

(On showing resolve…) You have to be hard-nosed in this league. We have a hard-nosed team, and we’re ready to play every week. Every game has been a great game so far this year, and obviously to win a game like that is an awesome fashion to win. We have so much more to do, and our goal is to do a lot of great things, and to bring a lot of great things to this city and our franchise. You just have to play one game at a time, and keep that hard-nosed mentality and keep working.

(On whether it was strange to watch the game from the sidelines for the final 25 minutes…) I came out with 12 minutes left in the third quarter. It’s great to be able to come out of the game because we blew them out so bad. The game was a crazy game throughout the whole entire game. I always want to be in there and get extra reps and keep working. It was great for us to get Matt in there. He did a great job, as well. That was a huge win for us.

(On playing against Arizona’s defense…) Like I said earlier, Arizona has a tremendous defense, they’ve been doing a tremendous job all season, if you watch the film. When you’re a player, and you watch the film, you say ‘man, they’re good.’. To watch them, and to play the way we did offensively, in terms of the offensive line, establishing our great running game today, and then we hit some big shots throughout the game early, to be able to do that, and to be able to run the ball, basically, for the rest of the game. That’s hard to do, and we did a great job of that today. Coach Bevell did a great job of calling great plays for us to execute. Same with Coach Cable in terms of the run game ideas. That was huge for us, and we have to keep that going.

(On making a little fun of Anthony McCoy…) I always try to get on him a little bit. He has a little, I guess you call it swagger, that USC swagger, I guess we say. That’s the way you have to play sometimes. He does a great job of playing loose, and just trusting what he knows. He has so much ability. To be able to play the way he did tonight against a great defense and make the protections that he made, and to extend the runs, the yards after the catch. You don’t see too many tight ends that are able to do that in the league.

RB ROBERT TURBIN

(On outcome of game today….) “It was a fun game, it’s rare to see games like this in the NFL but when you can go out and execute in all three phases of the game and with the defense doing everything right sometimes things like this can happen.”

(On team coming together….) “Just compare this game to the first time we played the Cardinals and sometimes it takes a rhythm week after week and getting better as a team, you keep practicing and that’s why you keep doing it. That’s why you play 16 games you don’t want to be the same in week 1 as you are in week 13, you want to be a lot better and I think we showed that today.”

(On getting in a rhythm….) “ It really helped a lot to not just get flashes of carries here and there but to get consecutive carries and get a feel for the defense on my own and that’s a lot of what Marshawn does. You guys talk about it all the time how he doesn’t usually break his big runs until the second half and that’s a part of him feeling the game and today I was able to kind of feel the game myself and get some big runs. “

TE ANTHONY McCOY

(On growth as a player…) “Well the good thing was I had a lot of good veterans ahead of me. I had John Carlson and Chris Baker my rookie year and the next year I had Zach Miller and Cameron Morrah all these guys were here. I got to learn a lot from the best in the league and I have grown a lot from my first year, I had a lot of mistakes, a lot of dropped balls and it’s something I really harped on in the off season and I think I fixed it for the most part.”

(On supporting each other as a team…) “It feels great, the defense was just lights out with eight takeaways today and then the special teams went out there and did their thing and it was just something great to see. From the offense it was great to see the defense play the way they were playing and I’m really excited going into the next game.”

CB RICHARD SHERMAN

(On his first interception …) “Just playing disciplined football and using our step kick technique that we always use. I got my head around and they threw a quick fade, Skelton threw the ball with a little lower trajectory I think he was trying to throw a back shoulder fade and I happened to get a foot in the ground and once I got my hands on it Earl did a great job of blocking and then it was just full speed.”

(On having a flash back from last year’s game....) “ Yeah I definitely had a flash back, my teammates still get on me for that and are always like ‘You still haven’t scored you keep getting picks but don’t score, when are you going to score once’ So I was like oh man I can’t get caught on this one. “

(On his touchdown dance…) “You got to have some fun out there, I told them if I ever got in the end zone I was going to do my dance I always do it at practice and we always have fun so they told me if I ever get in there they will let me do it and everybody just started dancing with me and having a good time.”

(On interception for touchdown…) “Everybody was excited it was an interception for a touchdown, I think it was one of our first scores of the year on defense so everybody was just happy we got one.”

(On feeling of team….) “It was unbelievable it was a total team effort, guys were playing out of their minds. Byron Maxwell, Jeremy Lane, and Walt started the whole thing off by tipping the ball up on the first drive for Bobby’s interception. It seemed like everything was going our way and the ball was falling our way on every opportunity and that was a fun game.”

(On being involved in a game like this…..) “I have never been involved in anything where the ball falls your way every single time it seemed like if the ball was going to come out it was going to fall our way Even on the fumble I fell on it and got the recovery it just kept bouncing around and I was like there is no way this ball is going to bounce right to me and it did. Everything that could go right went right.”

LB BOBBY WAGNER

(On today’s game and all the turnovers the team forced…) “We wanted to come out and make a big statement. This is one of the games that we had to win, and we had a huge win as a defense.”

(On his first interception…) “The ball bobbled around a bit and then Walter tipped it to me and when I caught the ball I just took off running. I saw Chris Clemons in front of me trying to get a key block, but the quarterback kind of squeezed through and got to me.”

(On if he feels he could’ve made it into the end zone…) “Yeah I have to talk to Marshawn and figure out how to get in the end zone, but I feel like I’m going to have a lot more opportunities.”

(On all of the turnovers coming in bunches…) “That is our main focus every week, just getting turnovers. Once you get one, then they just start coming to you in bunches. This game was a perfect example of that. When I got a turnover, Richard Sherman got a turnover, and vice versa, and then everyone just started getting turnovers and feeding off of each other. At one point me and Sherman started competing to see who would get the next one and who would end up with the most interceptions. It just makes the game fun.”

(On Richard Sherman being ahead of him in the turnover department today with the fumble recovery he had also…) “He might be ahead, but I won’t let him know it.”

(On what was the adjustments and coaching points coming out of the locker room at halftime…) “We just harped on finishing. We didn’t want to let a game slip away especially on the defensive side. We had a shutout and that is something we haven’t done this year so we wanted to keep that going.”

CB BYRON MAXWELL

(On the turnovers today…) “It was just going our way today and sometimes it just happens like that. I guess if you play enough you’ll maybe end up on the other side of that too.”

(On which was the best touchdown out of all the touchdowns today…) “Well I’m a defensive back so Richard Sherman’s pick six was probably the best one because as a defensive back that is what you want. You got and interception and got in the end zone, so that’s the biggest one.”

S EARL THOMAS

(On how does it feel to get the win in this fashion today…) “It feels good. It’s hard to win in the NFL and it feels great when we can get a win like this.”

(On the difference form this Arizona team and the one they faced in week one…) “I think they just came out a little flat, and we took advantage of it.”

DE CHRIS CLEMONS

(On how does it feel to have a game where all three units of the team come together and play a perfect game…) “We’ve never put up that many points, but we’ve had games where we played a complete game in all three phases. We just have to go out every week and play consistent, and now we just have to work on consistency, and the next step we have now is Buffalo.”

LB MALCOLM SMITH

(On his touchdown play…) “I don’t know how I ended up with the ball. I know the ball was flipping around, Jeremy Lane tipped it up, it tipped off of someone’s hand, and then there was like three of us going up for it. It was like a jump ball and I tipped it my way and caught it. I guess I was in the end zone.”

(On all of the turnovers today and if it was a case of turnovers coming in bunches…) “We put a lot of emphasis on it the whole week and we’re always taking shots at it, and I guess today was just our day.”

Read Next

The News Tribune offers a sports-only digital subscription for $30 a year with all the reporting from sports writers Gregg Bell, TJ Cotterill, Lauren Kirschman and Lauren Smith on the Mariners, Seahawks, Huskies and high schools.